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– is of good moral character
– has executive experience
– has an adult lifetime that includes significant time outside of DC
– embraces the principles of the US constitution
– is a fiscal conservative and will focus on the fiscal/financial as US President
– supports a balanced budget amendment
– is pro-entrepreneur
– has a plan on how to roll back job killing/anti-entrepreneurial regulations
– is not a Keynesian of any flavor
– wants the Fed to focus on anti-inflation measures to protect the currency
– is pro-federalism
– has a preference for individuals and markets over central planning
– ruthlessly against corruption/cronyism/ethic-less-ness in gov and has a record to back that up
– is a social moderate or has libertarian social leanings
– does not engage in overt gratuitous religious displays and pandering
– will not continue to abandon our international allies
– doesn’t feel a need or desire to apologize or be ashamed of America for being America
– does not wish for a US that is more like China, nor embraces a USA future where we are China’s little subservient buddy
– is not soft on, nor an apologist of Islamism
– will not accept a weaker or backwards-looking us national security capability
– is not a “slave” to biggov/bigbiz interests
– is not “climate change” or “global warming” zealot
– is for more energy from more sources, not less, especially including nuclear power
– is willing to push tax system reform to make it flat, transparent and cheaper (e.g. fair tax, Forbes flat tax, purple tax reform)
– is willing to address retirement and de-coupling of pensions from employer (e.g. a super IRA or PRA)
– is willing to push replacement of Obamacare with something like this and addresses at least Paul Ryan’s plan
– wants a smaller federal government and can name some specifics cuts
– names 2 cabinet departments or major agencies targeted for elimination
– if there were in the US congress, they did NOT vote/support tarp, the faux-stimulus, and the various bailouts (or they better have a good reason for me to over look this)
– has a plan for the US in space
– wants to address border security and immigration…and doesn’t call others who want to racists
-has not graduated from an ivy league university (or at least seems free of that taint)

Lastly: I want somebody who when they read this post and the post at this link won’t consider me to be a fucking hobbit/terrorist/racist.

5 Responses

Umm, but you call yourself a hobbit in your blog title. Anyway, a desire on your part to live in underground houses and walk barefoot under all conditions is no business of mine. . .

Having got that out of my system, could you explain why people treat Keynesianism and Hayekism as mutually exclusive? Near as I can tell, pumping money into damaged economies (Keynes) while or after eliminating the institutions that damaged them (Hayek) should be about as controversial as giving a patient blood during or after a procedure to sew their wounds up.

I think when you talk the difference in Keynes and Hayek it comes down to what each would have thought was the cause of the great depression and to to get out of it, how they view business cycles, and how to avoid future downturn that would be severe.

Keynes says the cause is a lack of demand and poor aggregate decision making cause the downturn depression/bust. The gov must step in and spending lots of money and make many (and increase) in the planning of the national economy.

Hayek and the Austrians say the depression/bust is caused by bad decisions made by the GOV during the boom to keep the boom going such as loose credit, loose/inflationary monetary policies which cause bad decisions (aka bad investments) to be made. The “bust” is the period when things get re-normalized. In general those in agreement with Keynes want to reduce Gov meddling and decision making in the economy to reduce future gov caused distortions to reduce the severity of future busts.

So, there isn’t much overlap, between what they think the cause and effect is. To Hayek/Austrian types, Keynesian responses make things worse by continuing to do bad things while at the same time introducing more central economic planning.To Keynesian, they see their “meddling” as the fix not the cause, so Hayekian types are trying to stop them from fixing the economy.

IMO, the label “Keynesian” is used to also give intellectual cover to:

1) Public choice theory driven politicians who have are only out to serve their private interests

2) Politicians that are really socialist/communist but who want to downplay those poisoned labels.

I am a US Citizen living in Milwaukee WI. I have interests in IT, information security, CyberWar, national security, fifth generation warfare (5GW), history, public policy, entrepreneurship, economics, pop culture and the future.